Handle for tools



Oct. 15, 1957 c, WHITEFQRD 2,809,846

HANDLE FOR TOOLS Filed July 25. 1954 i INVENTOR.

CARLTON L. WHITEFORD HANDLE FOR TOOLS Carlton L. Whiteford, San Juan, Puerto Rico Application July 23, 1954, Serial No. 445,379

Claims. (Cl. 279-102) This invention relates primarily to an improvement in the manufacture of tool handles and their attachment to manually operated tools; and While it is applicable to hand tools of various kinds, it will be suflicient for me to describe and illustrate it as applied to the manufacture of steel files manually used by mechanics for abrading and smoothing the surfaces of metallic, wooden and other objects.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 is a view in perspective of a common form of mechanics file of the flat double-faced type and having a flat tapering tang or projection for insertion into a handle; Fig. 2 a similar view of the handle before its attachment to the tool; Fig. 3 a similar view of the finished tool; Fig. 4 a similar view of the tool, the handle 14 and a ferrule 11 in the relative positions those elements occupy at the beginning of the operation of assembling them into the finished article; Fig. 5 an enlarged end view of the attaching end of the handle as it issues from the mold which I preferably use to shape it; and Fig. 6 an enlarged sectional view taken on a plane indicated by the lines 6-6 in Fig. 3.

In accordance with my invention, the salient feature of the handle is that the end thereof, which is adjacent to or faces the body 12 of the tool, is provided with longitudinal fiutings or grooves 13 of substantial depth. These fiutings can be very readily provided in a single operation if the handle is molded from a plastic material, such as cellulose acetate, as by injection molding. Before being attached to the tool, the maximum outside diameter of the handle at the end where the fiutings occur is enough greater than the inside diameter of the ferrule that when the parts have been assembled with the tang 10 tool within the handle and the ferrule in place encompassing the fluted end of the handle, the latter will grip the tang so tightly that unless the ferrule is first withdrawn from the handle the latter will not readily release the tool from its grip.

In assembling the parts while they are disposed in the relation to each other shown in Fig. 4, it is preferable to use a suitable instrument to embrace and reduce, by compression, the diameter of the fluted end of the'handle, then force the ferrule in place over the fluted end of the handle and finally drive the handle onto the tang. Instead, however, of driving the handle onto the tang after 7 the ferrule has been forced over the fluted end of the handle, the tang may first be inserted into the handle and then the ferrule forced home over the fluted end of the handle.

It will be noted that before the ferrule encompasses the fluted end of the handle, the plastic material of that of the United States Patent 0 "ice end is roughly sinuous in cross section somewhat resembling corrugations, as shown in Fig. 5. By forcing the ferrule over that end, the fact that the inside diameter of the ferrule is less than the outside diameter of the fluted end of the handle as the handle issues from the mold, puts the fluted plastic material under compression, as indicated in Fig. 3, and thus imparts resiliency to the said material, that is, creates therein internal forces acting inwardly against the tang of the tool and outwardly against the inner face of the ferrule. The result of this is to cause the handle to grip the tool very tightly.

It will be obvious, however, that by making the tang of the tool sulficiently large in cross section, the inside 1 diameter of the ferrule may be the same as, or even greater, than the outside diameter of the fluted end of the handle; for in either of these cases the fluted plastic material in the finished article will be under compression so as to hold the tool firmly within the handle.

I claim as my invention:

1. The combination of a tool and a handle within which one end of the tool is disposed, and characterized by this: that the adjacent end of the handle is provided with longitudinal fiutings and a ferrule, and that the material in the part of the handle in which the fiutings are formed is held under compression by the ferrule.

2. The combination of a tool having a projecting tang and a handle within which the tang is disposed and characterized by this: that the end of the handle adjacent to the tool is provided with longitudinal fiutings and a ferrule, and that the fluted end of the handle is held under compression by the ferrule.

3. The combination of a tool having a projecting tang and a handle of a plastic material embracing the tang and characterized by this: that the end of the handle adjacent to the tool is provided with longitudinal fiutings and a ferrule and that the fluted end of the handle is held under compression by the ferrule.

4. A handle of plastic material for tools which have a projecting tang for attachment to the handle, said handle being hollow for the reception of thetang and its outer face provided at one end with longitudinal fiutings forming on its inner face a surface corrugated in cross section for gripping the tang.

5. A handle of plastic material for tools which have a projecting tang for attachment to the handle, said handle being hollow for the reception of the tang and its outer face provided at one end with longitudinal fiutings forming on its inner face a surface corrugated in cross section for gripping the tang, in combination with a ferrule embracing the fluted end of the handle.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 769,504 Southall Sept. 6, 1904 1,225,249 Holtschneider May 8, 1917 1,404,507 Adolph Jan. 24, 1922 1,669,388 Chapman May 8, 1928 2,105,119 Hindes Jan. 11, 1938 2,176,698 Albrecht Oct. 17, 1939 2,209,181 Wendel July 23, 1940 2,335,414 Hinrichs Nov. 30, 1943 2,435,654 Pleva Feb. 10, 1948 2,653,840 Bitzer et a1 Sept. 29, 1953 

